xii Synopsis of Chapters. 



PAGE 



a reservoir for ■warlike requirements — The origin of English 

 Feudalism, and its incidents of grand and petit sergeantry, 

 castle-gard, escviage, primogeniture, wardship, primer seisin, 

 relief, marriage, fine, aid, escheat, forfeiture, homage, frankal- 

 moigne, and burgage — Parallels drawn between Anglo-Saxon 

 and Norman land customs — Certain feudal incidents traced 

 home to a communal politj' — Gradual change into a peaceful 

 significance of all the chief feudal incidents — Sketch of the 

 ceremony observed by a tenant in grand sergeantry- at a Coro- 

 nation — Striking instances of ancient customs of Land Tenure — 

 Tenures by Latimer, cornage, blencliholding, etc. — Manorial cus- 

 toms at Kings' Hill and Diinmow in Essex — Scenes in the 

 Honour of Tutbury and in the towns of Scarborough and Derby 

 on certain days in the year — Brief allusion to the effects of 

 feudalism on the national character 151 



CHAPTER XII. 



DOMESDAY BOOK. 



Its character — Eapidity with which it was compiled — Its accuracy 

 with regard to personalty contrasted with its slipshod methods 

 of land measurement — A careful examination of the principal 

 land measurements, such as the hide, carucate, virgate, bovate, 

 and other terms vised in the survey — Walter of Henley's, See- 

 bohm's and VinogradofTs conclusions — Brief examination of 

 other terms denoting measures — The social distinctions of the 

 age demonstrated from the various appellations used in the book 

 — Tenants in capite, barones, liberi homines, milites, subfeudarii, 

 vavasours, paravails, villeins, coliberti, servi, drenches radmanni, 

 and chenistres, etc., etc. — The views of mediaeval legal experts 

 on the villeinage class — Influence of the Norman Conquest on 

 agriculture — Eichard de Rulos, the Monks and husbandry — A 

 picture of this rural industry at the age now ttnder discussion . 171 



tibe /IlMC)Me Hgcs. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE BIRTH OF THE LAND LAWS. 



Influence of the Crusades on English husbandr}- — Non-residence of 

 landed gentry and disturbed state of the country — Improve- 

 ments in agriculture create a necessity for new laws — The ad- 

 vance in men's minds towards modern ideas on landownership 

 and fixity of tenure — The heavy taxation on landed property^ — • 

 Magna Charta and its effects on landed interests — The abuses of 

 the feudal system begin to be remedied by the national legis- 

 lature — Subinfeudation checked by Quia emptores, which in its 

 turn produces danger to entailed interests and necessitates De 

 donis — Revival of feudal ideas concerning succession to Realty 

 — Primogeniture never observed with the strictness of a legis- 

 lative enactment, and often arbitrarilj- evaded where the caiises 

 for it Avere not present — Progress in the conveyance of land — 

 The doinlnixira directum and the dominhim utile in their bear- 

 ing on the cei-emony of homage — Description of the abbrevia- 

 tions used in an early charter — The first evidences of a national 

 feeling for growing commercial interests ..... 181 



